Effect of cerebellar vermal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation with theta burst stimulation paradigm on cognitive functions of patients with schizophrenia / 上海交通大学学报（医学版）

ABSTRACT

Objective • To explore the effect of cerebellar vermal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) with theta burst stimulation (TBS) paradigm on cognitive functions of patients with schizophrenia. Methods • Thirty-one schizophrenia patients were randomly assigned into study group (n=14) and control group (n=17). Patients in the study group received a combination of rTMS and drug therapy, and patients in the control group received a combination of sham rTMS and drug therapy. The intervention lasted for 2 weeks, a total of 10 times. To evaluate the effect of rTMS on cognitive functions, MATRICS consensus cognitive battery (MCCB) was used to assess at baseline, after the intervention, 12 weeks and 24 weeks after the end of the intervention. Results • At baseline, there were no significant differences between two groups in the scores of each factor and the overall composite scores (P>0.05). After the intervention, repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the main effect of time was statistically significant in the scores of social cognitive (F=3.901, P0.05). Moreover, in the scores of speed of processing, attention/vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving and the overall composite scores, the main effect of group/time and the interaction between time and group were not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion • Application of TBS rTMS to cerebellar vermal is not superior compared with sham rTMS in improving the above seven cognitive domains.